Category: NJ

Reinventing Local News

Here’s an interesting effort to help “reinvent” local news. The gist of it seems to be that we should put aside a certain amount of money from FCC auctions of local TV licenses to help set up new “cutting edge” local news sources. I’m not too optimistic that this will happen, or that it would result in quality, long-term, local news for New Jersey if it does. But, hey, it’s worth a shot. The local news situation in NJ is pretty weak.

We’re focusing first on New Jersey. Sandwiched between the New York and Philadelphia media markets, New Jersey receives little to no coverage of its state and local governments. New Jersey owns four public TV licenses, which the FCC estimates could fetch as much as $2.3 billion at auction.

Source: Our Last, Best Chance to Reinvent Local News

Pope Francis Names Joseph Tobin to Lead Archdiocese of Newark

From the NY Times:

Francis’ pick is Joseph W. Tobin, currently the archbishop of Indianapolis. He made national headlines last year when he rebuffed Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana, now the Republican vice-presidential nominee, by refusing to stop Catholic Charities from resettling a family of Syrian refugees.

And:

Archbishop Tobin [..] is replacing Archbishop John J. Myers, a conservative who is among a small minority of American prelates who announced long ago that Catholic politicians who support abortion rights should not receive Holy Communion.

Also:

Myers’s tenure was hobbled in recent years after he failed to ensure that a priest convicted of child sexual abuse no longer had access to children.

Myers is the guy who spent half a million dollars of church money on upgrades to his retirement home.

I have a lot of snarky comments in my head about all this upheaval in the church, but I’m going to withhold them all and just say that I’m following Francis’ reforms with some interest and lots of hope.

Archbishop Peter L. Gerety Dies at 104

…he had erased a multimillion-dollar deficit in the archdiocese, in part by selling a lavish archbishop’s mansion in a gated community in West Orange and settling instead in a rectory in the North Ward of Newark, a city still scarred by the race riots of the 1960s.

Source: Peter L. Gerety, Oldest Archbishop Who Preached Social Justice, Dies at 104

I kind of remember Archbishop Gerety from back when I was a kid. He probably came to our parish once or twice. I didn’t know much about him then, but, reading his obituary, he sounds like the kind of archbishop the Church can be proud of. (Unlike this guy and his fancy retirement house.)

Garden State Comic Fest

I went to Garden State Comic Fest today. It was a bit of a last-minute decision, since I didn’t even know it was happening until I saw a tweet about it on Friday from Jim Steranko. I haven’t been to a con like this in quite some time. I’d call it a medium-size con. Plenty of dealers and a fair number of guests. And, unlike some other cons, the guests were primarily comic book writers and artists. (No pro wrestlers, reality TV stars, or washed-up sci-fi actors from the 70s. Not that there’s anything wrong with any of that…)

I got three books signed: my copy of  Legion Annual #3, by Greg LaRoque; a Dick Tracy comic, by Joe Staton; and a hardcover First Wave collection, by Rags Morales. All three of those guys were very friendly, and it was cool to meet them.

I didn’t see Steranko there, though maybe I just didn’t look hard enough. I did see Walt and Louise Simonson, but their table was (rightly) very busy, so I didn’t get to talk to them or get anything signed. Greg Hildebrandt had a very nice Tolkien book for sale, but it was a bit too expensive for me ($100).

I picked up a few random hardcovers and paperbacks for really low prices (all between $5 and $9), so my reading pile is now another eight or so inches higher. I didn’t pick up any individual issues, but I did flip through some dollar boxes, and enjoyed looking at some random old comics. So, overall, worth the trip and the $25 admission.

Snow photos

Here are a few photos I took, near the Somerville courthouse.

Main St is pretty well cleared, and traffic is moving. Some businesses are open, but many aren’t. Starbucks, ShopRite, and Central Pizza are all open, and that’s probably all I really need. My car and my parking spot are pretty well clear of snow now, after about two hours total work.

Chris Christie has gone back to New Hampshire, so I guess he thinks his job is done for the day. (And kudos to the Star-Ledger for the brutal headline and snarky article!)

I guess I’m going to have to drive in to work tomorrow, as usual. Hopefully the roads will be reasonably clear. And maybe we’ll at least have a delayed opening.

 

 

Blizzard 2016

Well, we got 27.4 inches of snow here in Somerville yesterday, according to the local news. It’s calmed down today, and everybody is digging out. I spent about 30 minutes digging my car out this morning, then another hour just before lunch. I’m actually kind of surprised I lasted that long. I’m still fighting a cold, and I’m still not sure I’d say I was 100% after my hernia surgery three months ago.

So now I’m trying to rest up a bit, watching TV and drinking coffee. (Starbucks is open!) I’m hopeful that I can work from home tomorrow, but we’ll see what they say about that.

Here’s an article on the storm from the NY Times that I’ll probably read later, after my head has stopped throbbing so much.

Somerset Patriots

I skipped most of the Tour of Somerville today, in favor of going to my first Somerset Patriots game. A friend got some free tickets, and gave me a couple. It was a nice way to spend a warm Memorial Day afternoon. I’m going to use a photo from the game as a “featured image” on this post, and see how that looks.

Oh, and I’ve also just realized that I need to figure out if I can increase the max upload size for this blog. It’s currently 2 MB, which isn’t enough for a full-size photo from my iPhone. I’m not sure if I’m bumping up against some arbitrary WordPress limit, or if this is the usual PHP upload limit.

[Update: I increased the PHP upload limit by creating a .user.ini file in my WordPress root folder, as indicated by this StackOverflow answer. I was already familiar with doing this through php.ini, but I hadn’t stumbled across .user.ini before. So I learned something new today!]

upload_max_filesize = 4M
post_max_size = 8M
file_uploads = On

annoying detours

Just found out that my usual route to work will be blocked off for “a few months.” I knew they were doing this, but I was hoping it would just be for a week or two. Joy.

Talmadge Avenue Bridge Reconstruction over the Middle Brook, Township of Bridgewater/Borough of Bound Brook. Beginning Friday, August 14th a detour will go into effect for this bridge as work continues. Eastbound traffic will continue to use the temporary bridge but must turn left onto Tea Street. Talmadge Ave. will be closed at this bridge. The posted detour will direct traffic to Union Ave. (Route 28), to Mountain Ave. back to Main Street. The posted detour will direct westbound traffic onto Mountain Avenue to Union Avenue to Tea Street back to East Main Street. This detour will remain in effect for a few months.